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What happens when the systems designed to warn us about emergencies don't work? For millions of Americans, the answer is Watch Duty — the wildfire-tracking app that hit #1 in the App Store during the January 2025 LA fires.
Watch Duty founder John Mills may be the only founder who dreads growth: when your app tracks wildfires and floods, every new user is someone in harm's way. "It's not a success story," he says. "It's a failure story."
In this episode of Disasterproof, we go behind the scenes of Watch Duty, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit building a real-time early-warning network for communities facing wildfire and flood. Rooted in America's long tradition of citizen storm reporting, Watch Duty brings together volunteer reporters and local experts to track incidents, verify information, and help communities understand what's coming before it's too late.
We visit John at the off-grid Sonoma County property where it all started, meet the volunteers listening to radio scanners 24/7 across all 50 states, and hear from the firefighters who now rely on the app themselves.
Disasterproof is a series exploring the people, technology, and ideas building real resilience for communities facing climate-driven disasters.
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Chapters:
0:00 - The Failure Story Behind This Disaster Tracking App
1:33 - Tornadoes: A Citizen Alert Case Study
3:04 - Who is Filling the Gap in America's Emergency Alert System?
06:19 - How Watch Duty Turns Signals Into Community
09:21 - How Firefighters and First Responders Are Using Tech to Save Lives
11:10 - Disaster Tech's Unfortunate Growth Into Critical Infrastructure
13:10 - What a Resilient Future Looks Like for Disaster-Prone Communities
